Secure Electronic Payment

Abstract

A method of authorizing a secure electronic payment from a payer to a payee. At a digital identity system, an electronic message is received, which comprises a payer credential and identifies a payee system. At the digital identity system, a digital identity associated with the payer credential is accessed, the digital identity comprising: 1) at least one identity attribute or data for deriving at least one identity attribute, and 2) a payment token or data for obtaining a payment token, the payment token for effecting an electronic payment from the payer to a recipient of the payment token. At least one electronic message is transmitted from the digital identity system to the payee system to render the identity attribute and the payment token available to the payee system, for determining, based on the identity attribute rendered available to the payee device, whether to use the available payment token to effect an electronic payment from the payer to the payee.

Description

BACKGROUND

[0001] Payment fraud is a serious problem in the modern world and the problem is getting worse as more and more payments are made electronically. This applies to online payments in particular where the opportunities for committing payment fraud are rife. One of the most common types of payment fraud is where a user's payment card details are obtained illicitly and used without their authorisation to make purchases online. A significant proportion of card payments worldwide end up being reversed (a so-called “chargeback”) for this reason. Such payments often go through initially because insufficient checks are made to verify the identity of the person using the card details.SUMMARY

[0002] This disclosure provides a secure and efficient mechanism for making identity-linked payments. It has various applications, which include the combating of online fraud but also other applications where identity checks need to be made before accepting payment. One example is age verification w...

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